Files released on UFO sightings PM - Wednesday, 14 May , 2008...

Files released on UFO sightings

PM - Wednesday, 14 May , 2008 18:46:00
Reporter: Barbara Miller

MARK COLVIN: Thanks to TV series like the X-Files, most people associate UFO sightings with America.

But from today, hundreds of pages of official British documents on UFO sightings are available on the internet..

They include the story of a 78-year-old man who said he'd been taken on board a spaceship but was told he was too old for the aliens' purposes, and the two policemen who were "slightly embarrassed" to report having observed a white light descending from the sky.

The British authorities say there's immense public interest in the release of the files.

Australian UFO watchers say they intend to lobby the government to take similar action here.

Barbara Miller compiled this report.

(Extract from film archive)

ANNOUNCER: We bring you this special radio television broadcast in order to give you the very latest information on an amazing phenomenon. The arrival of a spaceship in Washington.

BARBARA MILLER: You might not believe in Aliens but the chances at some point you've been sufficiently interested in the concept to watch one of the many films or television programs dealing with the notion of extraterrestrial life.

(Extract from ET)

ANNOUNCER: Our mission is to monitor extraterrestrial activity on earth.

BARBARA MILLER: The UK's National Archives has today published hundreds of pages of documents on UFO sightings.

DAVID CLARK: It has to be said that the vast majority of them are just ordinary people who've seen something unusual and thought that they ought to tell someone about it.

BARBARA MILLER: But David Clark a journalism lecturer who's been working on the documents says there's also some more colourful tales.

DAVID CLARK: There's one quite interesting report that was sent in by a Ufologist who'd interviewed an elderly man in Aldershot who claimed he'd been out fishing one night in 1983.

He'd seen a flying saucer land by the side of the Aldershot Canal and he's been given a tour of this spaceship by two creatures dressed in green overalls who had emerged and they showed him around this flying saucer and they started to scan his body and they said oh no you can go because you're too old and infirm for our purposes.

BARBARA MILLER: There's also the story of the police officers, who on Christmas Day in 1985 observed a white light descending from the sky. The officers were sufficiently concerned to record the siting but felt it necessary to add to their account.

POLICE REPORT: Genuine report. Too competent police officers slightly embarrassed.

BARBARA MILLER: Dianne Frola is the National Director of the Australian UFO Research Network. She says she'd like the Australian Government to make the files it holds on UFO sightings more readily available.

DIANNE FROLA: We have a certain amount of files available to the Australian public through the Australian Archives. The only problem with searching through Archives, most of the files are filed either under numbers, sort of like coding so that it makes it a lot more difficult to find these files.

I'd like to see Australian Government release the files that have anything to do with UFOs in a chronological order so we can actually instead of using numbers they just come up under unidentified flying objects.

BARBARA MILLER: Dianne Frola says there's been a particularly high number of callers recently to a national UFO hotline.

DIANNE FROLA: People seem to think that people that see UFOs have to be a bit kooky but they're not. I mean, we've had a fireman ring up from Mildura, we've had a policeman ring from the Gold Coast, we've had a photographer today ring and he said he's got photographs he'd like people to look at. So these people are trained to be observers so I mean, what's going on?

(Sound of Dr Who theme music)

BARBARA MILLER: The files released today by the UK National Archives are available to download without charge for one month.

MARK COLVIN: Barbara Miller.


http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2245029.htm